Roads, Development, and Conservation in the Congo Basin

: Road density is closely linked to market accessibility, economic growth, natural resource exploitation, habitat fragmentation, deforestation, and the disappearance of wildlands and wildlife. Research in the Republic of Congo shows that roads established and maintained by logging concessions intensify bushmeat hunting by providing hunters greater access to relatively unexploited populations of forest wildlife and by lowering hunters' costs to transport bushmeat to market. Reconciling the contrary effects of roads on economic development and biodiversity conservation is one of the key challenges to wildlife managers in all nations. As the Democratic Republic of Congo prepares to reconstruct its almost completely collapsed road system, the government, donors, and conservation organizations have a unique opportunity to strategically prioritize investment in segments of the network that would maximize local and national economic benefits while minimizing adverse effects on forest wildlife. Resumen: La densidad de carreteras esta estrechamente ligada al acceso a mercados, el crecimiento economico, la explotacion de recursos naturales, la fragmentacion del habitat, la deforestacion y la desaparicion de tierras y vida silvestre. Investigacion en la Republica del Congo muestra que las carreteras establecidas y mantenidas por las concesiones para tala de arboles intensifican la caceria al proveer a los cazadores un mayor acceso a poblaciones forestales de vida silvestre relativamente sin explotar y al disminuir el costo de transporte de la carne obtenida por la caza hacia el mercado. La reconciliacion de los efectos contrarios de las carreteras en el desarrollo economico y la conservacion de la biodiversidad es uno de los retos clave para los manejadores de vida silvestre en todas las naciones. A medida que la Republica Democratica del Congo se prepara para reconstruir su casi completamente colapsado sistema carretero, el gobierno, los donadores y las organizaciones no gubernamentales conservacionistas tienen una oportunidad unica para priorizar estrategicamente las inversiones en segmentos de la red carretera que podrian maximizar los beneficios economicos locales y nacionales al mismo tiempo que se minimicen los impactos adversos sobre la vida silvestre forestal.

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